Features
Q’s With Craig Hassall & Lucy Noble Of The Royal Albert Hall (Updated With Digital Session)
Christie Goodwin – Kids In The Hall:
The sight Craig Hassall and Lucy Noble miss more than anything: a packed auditorium at the Royal Albert Hall.
Imagine planning your birthday party. Not just any old party: we’re talking a full year of celebrations. Entertainment on a daily basis, including some of the biggest names in music, who agreed to turn up for the occasion. Imagine the organization this would require, the figuring out of dates and time slots, the negotiations with agents and managers – in addition to producing the entire show yourself. You would start preparations at least a year in advance, as you didn’t want to leave anything to chance. You’d tell your friends and family about it early, so they would have no excuse for not showing up to at least one of the 365 days of festivities. And now, imagine that about four months into your grand announcement, life as we know it comes to a standstill.
That’s pretty much the situation the team of London’s Royal Albert Hall has found itself in. The iconic venue turns 150 on March 29, and the original idea was to celebrate this milestone beginning in November 2020 and lasting through all of 2021. When the team announced its extravagant plans back in November 2018, it had all the makings of the biggest birthday bash ever hosted in honor of a building. A dedicated anniversary committee, chaired by UTA’s legendary global head of music Neil Warnock, was tasked with helping to curate the program. It features some of the most well-known promoters, agents, managers and label execs in the UK music industry.
Gideon Gottfried – Legacy Keepers:
(from left): Craig Hassall, CEO of the Royal Albert Hall, Lucy Noble, the venue’s artistic and commercial director, and Neil Warnock, MBE, chair of the Hall’s anniversary committee.
It’s hard to get a date in the Hall in a normal year, let alone in one where everyone’s eager to pay it homage. In 2019, the venue sold 1.7 million tickets across a total of 1,500 events, which included 391 shows in the main auditorium, as well as 1,109 additional shows in the Hall’s many surrounding spaces. Needless to say, rescheduling a year’s worth of concerts, comedy, family shows, sports, gala and charity events, has been an ongoing challenge, as uncertainties surrounding the UK’s return to live remain.
One thing is certain: the party will be live, as in, attended by a live audience. Live streams from an empty auditorium, spectacular as it may look on camera, won’t cut it. The Royal Albert Hall has built a legacy around its ability to bring people from all walks of life together. And until that is possible again, there won’t be any celebrations, both Craig Hassall, the building’s CEO, and its artistic and commercial director, Lucy Noble, assured us of it.
Check out a video interview with Craig Hassall and Lucy Noble posted at the end of the Q&A, the latest in the Pollstar & VenuesNow Digital Sessions series.
Pollstar: You must have been in the middle of conversations and scheduling when the crisis hit. Can you take us through everything that has happened since?
Craig Hassall: As you said, we’ve been planning it for some time. For any venue to turn 150 is a huge milestone. What we’re trying to do, and what Lucy has done really well, is represent all of the various elements of the Royal Albert Hall in the 150th. And it was all there, it was all going well.
Originally, it was going to be starting last November and then running for the whole of this year. Everyone that was involved, and we’ve had to reschedule, has tried to remain involved. No one has said, ‘you know what, count us out, because the dates don’t work’. As a result, we’ve decided to stretch the period of the celebration. We’re now up to 2023, because there are so many events that we still want to do. It’s still really busy, and it’s going to be fantastic, just over a longer period of time. That’s putting a positive spin on what’s been a really invasive event for the whole music industry around the world.
Lucy Noble: It’s such an amazing anniversary, we’ve been working towards it for half a decade. So, it was disappointing to be in this situation opening up on our 150th year. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, we have managed to move events. And we have a whole raft of amazing music industry ambassadors, who have been helping us secure amazing artists for the 150th. That might not be this year, it might be next year or even 2023, but they have been brilliant and really supportive. Everything that we had planned hopefully will still happen, just at different times. We’re still very excited about it.
Lucy, 2021 also marks your 20th anniversary of working at the Hall. Can you encapsulate that time in one word or sentiment?
Lucy Noble: Oh, wow. That’s a really difficult question to answer. I suppose I would say magical, really. Because I think the Hall is magical. I have been at the Hall a long time, I’ve done lots of different jobs [there], and I’ve been lucky enough to have lots of opportunities at the Hall. It is an amazing place to work, and in my mind the best and most beautiful venue in the world.
Craig, you first came into contact with the hall running English National Ballet, and then as a promoter for Raymond Gubbay. How does that experience influence the way you’re running the Hall today?
Craig Hassall: The English National Ballet association was a government funded organization, so it was, I suppose, slightly more artistic, whereas Gubbay is also very artistic, but commercially driven. What I find now, running the Hall, is that it reinforces what a weird creature the Royal Albert Hall is. As we keep saying, it’s the most eclectic venue in the world. I look at all the things we do in a year, and this is where someone like Lucy is so important, because Lucy is classically trained as a flautist, but also understands the rock and pop world really well. She can straddle a Mahler Symphony to Nine Inch Nails. Sometimes we have to put our artistic hat on and think this is a very important thing to do for the art form, for contemporary dance or ballet or opera or emerging artists, and it may not make as much money as something else could.
Other times we think, this is going to make us a lot of money, and it’s really important, because we need the money, we don’t receive government funding. The more artistic things that we really love and want to do are funded by the commercial things that we equally love to do. Part of Lucy’s tussle is, how do you choose the mix between a very rare commercial activity at the Hall versus a university graduation ceremony or a brass band competition or an education project or a dance season. We want to do them all, and there aren’t enough days in the year. I can’t think of another place where I could do this job and have that kind of variety, that tension of art and commerce, every day.
Brian Rasic / Getty Images – A higher purpose:
The Royal Albert Hall is a charity and very committed to the programming beyond the main stage. This is Jake Bugg standing in the middle of students of the Hall’s 2014 Education Workshops Program Launch.
What was the thinking behind installing a new speaker system in 2019?
Craig Hassall: We don’t sit on our hands, we’re not complacent about the fact that we’re a really famous building, because we’re still competing in the rock and pop world, in the events world, in the award ceremonies world. There’s a lot of competing markets and competing venues. Our obligation is to compete and make sure we are the preeminent venue. It’s not cheap to hire the Royal Albert Hall, so make sure that what you get when you hire it is fantastic service and great facilities.
There’s a philosophical point, as well. We are a charity, we don’t have shareholders, there’s no dividends to pay out. Any money that we make, has to, under our Constitution, go back into the building or into education programs. When I say back into the building, that means not just keeping it as it is, but keeping it state of the art as much as we can. The d&b speaker system, which is the best in the world – that’s not improving the Hall, that’s keeping pace with the industry. Similarly, backstage, we have so many different groups using the Hall: one night it’s the BAFTAs, where you have lots of requirements for individual dressing rooms for all the Divas and the stars. The next night could be the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with a huge choir, so you need really big congregation spaces. We need to have multifunctional back-of-house facilities to satisfy every requirement.
Lucy Noble: Part of the difficulty with having amazing touring shows is that we were having a different sound system in the venue every night. And it’s actually nearly impossible to create amazing sound with systems that have been brought in overnight. And we wanted the sound to be fantastic for every show that came in, throughout the whole Hall. It just means that everyone, the audiences and the artists, have a really amazing experience and are uplifted. It’s also very easy to get the sound wrong at the Royal Albert Hall, if you’re bringing a system in that is created for other venues. The Hall is a unique space. It’s not easy to get the sound right.
Michael Putland / Getty Images – Global-Minded:
North African singer and actress Hindi Zahra performs on stage in the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall, Nov. 8, 2015.
Can you talk a bit more about the Hall’s educational as well as the charitable work? Why is it so important to you?
Lucy Noble: All the smaller events that we do outside the main auditorium, they offer an opportunity that the main space can’t. Things like allowing lower ticket prices. I think our average ticket price in the main auditorium is something like £52. We do events for free or £10 in those other spaces. That means we get different kinds of audiences in that perhaps wouldn’t come to the Royal Albert Hall. We also offer younger artists the opportunity to perform in those spaces who, wouldn’t normally perform on our main stage. We’re developing some kind of talent pipeline and can support those artists on the way out. We’ve had many people that have performed in our Elgar Room, which is our main secondary space, who then actually go on to perform in the main space.
It also brings the Hall alive in the daytime. We have this amazing education and outreach program where we engage with around about 200,000 people each year. We work with mums and babies right through to the elderly who have dementia, or might be lonely, and everybody else in-between. Often it links [to] what’s happening on our main stage. We might put a performance on our main stage where tickets are just five pounds. We have something called Friendship Matinee, mainly aimed at elderly people. They come and see a performance they wouldn’t normally be able to afford. Those are obstacles, [also for] younger people from challenged backgrounds. We offer those opportunities, so that we’re welcoming different kinds of people to the Hall, welcoming everyone.
Can you each pick one memorable night that you experienced at the Hall?
Lucy Noble: It’s very difficult to answer because they are all so different, and you love them in different ways. But one that I do remember, for historical reasons, really, was when Nelson Mandela was first released from prison, and we had a special African concert for him at the Royal Albert Hall. Just to be there in his presence, the whole Hall was up dancing, all of the Royal Family were there, and Nelson Mandela was dancing. I will never forget that just because it was such an important moment. And the concert was fabulous. I could go on and on.
Craig Hassall: I hadn’t been at the Hall very long and we had Kraftwerk in. I grew up with Kraftwerk in Australia. It was a 3D show, everyone was wearing these white glasses, it looked like a set of a 1950s sci-fi film. We have a box that we use to entertain donors, sponsors and various people, and I had a spare seat. I saw one of the young guys in marketing, and said, ‘do you want to sit in the box?’, and he said, ‘Yeah, sure’. And at the end of the show – I loved it, of course – I said to him, ‘Why are you even here? What are you, like 20, 22 years old?’ And he said, ‘Craig, are you crazy? These guys are the grandfathers of electronica. Without Kraftwerk, there’s no Daft Punk, there’s no Chemical Brothers. This is like a religious ceremony for me.’ I thought, well, actually, it is for me, too.
– The revolutionary & The Queen:
The visit of the late President Nelson Mandela, July 11, 1996. The Queen and other Royals attended an African concert at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring the late Hugh Masekela, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and others.
Name one artist that you haven’t managed to get yet, but would love to see on stage?
Craig Hassall: Neil Warnock is the chair of our 150th committee. And I keep saying to Neil, ‘can you please get Dolly Parton with a guitar on a barstool, that’s all I ask?’ Dolly Parton doing anything would be a great thing. She’s such an icon, such a champion of the music industry.
What does Mr. Warnock say when you ask him?
Craig Hassall: He keeps changing the topic.
How about you, Lucy?
Lucy Noble: I like to get the up-and-coming artists like Arlo Parks. Getting them right at the start of their careers is really important. But we also haven’t had huge rock bands like Metallica or Chili Peppers, and we’ve never had Madonna.
How have you been able to afford leaving the doors shut during the downtime?
Craig Hassall: We’re about £30 million in a hole. We had reserves, and the reserves were earmarked to do things like finish off the Great Excavation and other projects. They were all stalled and deferred. We lived off our savings, basically. We also have donors, who give to us philanthropically. And we asked them if they would honor their pledges and bring their donations forward and un-tag them. A lot of donations were tagged for certain projects, and they pretty much all agreed to do that. Also, we’re in the process of taking out a loan from government, not funding, but a loan through the COVID recovery scheme. We haven’t got the money yet, but we’ve signed a loan agreement. There were three rounds of grants last year, and we weren’t eligible for any of them, unfortunately, and there’ll be a fourth one out soon, which we probably won’t be eligible for either. But the loan will just keep us in business.
What we ask of government is, just let us open! If we can open, we can trade our way out of this. We do well at the box office, we can look after ourselves, but we’ve got to be able to put shows on. Getting the shows on is the most important thing, not just for us. The whole ecosystem of freelance artists and freelance crew, smaller companies, lighting supply companies, staging companies, they all rely on places like us and other venues around London, around the UK. Until we’re open, it’s such a loss for the whole sector.
courtesy Royal Albert Hall – A Noble Cause:
Lucy Noble has worked at the Hall for 20 years, six of which as director. She describes her experience so far as “magical”.
What is your business philosophy?
Lucy Noble: I always say to guys, work hard, but have lots of fun as well. I think it’s important to have fun at work. And I always acknowledge that I don’t know everything. There’s people in my teams who will come in and tell me about an artist who I haven’t heard of, and it’s really important that you embrace your whole team, and you’re all working together towards a common goal. And just to be kind to people is really important to me, in terms of how I manage the workforce.
Craig Hassall: Empower people who are clever and good at what they do, that’s my advice. It seems to work pretty well, certainly at the Hall. We’ve got a great team, who are really keen to do what they do. And they do it really well. So, let them do it.
Lucy, looking back on your time with the Hall, is there anything you’re particularly proud of?
Lucy Noble: I’m proud of most of the things I’ve done. But since I became a director in the last five or six years, I can’t remember now, that’s when you can really make a difference, as you become more senior in an organization, shaping the program more, becoming an in-house promoter, dare we say it? That has been a great step forward for the Hall.
Christie Goodwin – The Hall Gets Grimey:
Stormzy perforrms at the Global Citizen Prize at the Royal Albert Hall, Dec. 13, 2019.
Taking into account this past, very strange year, as well as the one lying ahead of us, what’s your state of mind at the end of March 2021?
Craig Hassall: I remember the day Lucy and I sat down. It was looking bad, and we both said,’I think we have to close, the government’s going to mandate that we close.’ That evening, the West End closed, the next day we closed, I think it was St. Patrick’s Day last year. We all said ‘goodbye’ and walked out, but in a very casual way. We had no idea we’d be closed for so long. I am just absolutely missing and yearning for that live experience again But, equally, it’s also the team. When I’m at the Hall, I’ll go for a wander around, go and see the building services guys and go and talk to the crew and talk to the tour guides and pop into the kitchen. Everyone’s so committed to what they do, and they feel so proud of delivering the experience for the audience or the artists. I miss that so much. We work in an industry, which is so much about people, yet I’ve been stuck in his attic for a year. I just miss it. I just miss the people from the Hall, most of all, as much as the shows.
Lucy Noble: It’s the same for me, I really miss seeing people. To begin with, it was quite nice to work from home for a while. And then you just realize that you’re missing a huge part of your life that enriches your soul. Music is a huge part of my life, I studied music, it’s everything that I do, and we do as a family, actually. I really miss that.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Lucy Noble: I would just thank all the promoters and the artists and the agents and managers for supporting us and other venues through this. It’s not been easy having to reschedule a year’s worth of events. It’s been extremely difficult, actually, and challenging. But the promoters and everyone involved have been supportive of us, so I just want to say thank you for all of their support over the years leading up to the 150th anniversary, and hopefully in the future, too.